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Singapore director Chiang Wei Liang and co-director Yin You Qiao’s “Mongrel,” a portrayal of disenfranchised migrant workers in Taiwan, won Best Asian Feature Film at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff).

The jury praised the film’s “dense, shadowy and violent world” and its innovative approach to depicting contemporary issues of forced migration. The film has previously won awards at the Cannes and the Golden Horse festivals and at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film” won the newly-revised Audience Choice Award. The docufiction drama follows a director attempting to complete a decade-old project during the Covid-19 pandemic, blending footage from Lou’s previous films with new material. The film previously won Golden Horse and Tokyo FILMeX awards.

In the Asian Feature Film Competition, Vietnamese filmmaker Truong Minh Quy received Best Director for “Viet and Nam,” a queer love story about two coal miners facing separation.

Việt and Nam.The fate of modern Vietnam is inseparable from the image. The war was the first large-scale conflict in human history to be captured on film and disseminated in real time. And yet, in cinema, hegemonic representations in the mold of Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978) or Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) have engendered a collective derealization in the Western imagination, where Vietnam frequently exists first as a stage for contemporary moral theater and only secondarily as a sovereign nation in its own right; its people are rendered as props, mere shooting targets, denied even a semblance of the on-screen interiority afforded to their foreign counterparts.In the last decade, a growing number of Vietnamese filmmakers have begun asserting agency over how narratives about the country and the lives of its people get told. The recently expanded focus of European filmmaking labs to foster talent explicitly from historically underrepresented regions,...

The 19th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival has wrapped in Yogyakarta (Jogja), Indonesia, with local feature “Yohanna” dominating the Indonesian Screen Awards while Neo Sora’s “Happyend” secured the festival’s top Golden Hanoman Award.

“Yohanna,” directed by Razka Robby Ertanto, collected five honors including best film, director, storytelling, performance, and cinematography (Odyssey Flores). Truong Minh Quy’s “Viet and Nam” took home the Silver Hanoman Award.

In other awards, “Ma – Cry of Silence” by The Maw Naing won the Netpac Award and Geber Award, while Hung Chen’s “When the Wind Rises” secured both the Blencong Award and Jaff Student Award. Behzad Nalbandi’s “Anita, Lost in the News” received a Special Jury Mention.

The festival program featured a masterclass with Taiwan-based auteur Tsai Ming Liang, which attracted filmmakers like Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Kamila Andini, and Jaff director Ifa Isfansyah. Three of Tsai’s works were screened: “Vive L’Amour...

Hanoman Award

Hanoman Award is a feature-length competitive program for established directors and upcoming young talent who hold the future of Asian cinema. The first winner will be awarded a Golden Hanoman and runner-up will be awarded a Silver Hanoman.

Amanda Nell Eu, Gina S. Noer and Julien Rejl gave the Silver Hanoman to “Viet and Nam” by Vietnamese Truong Minh Quy and the Golden Hanoman to “HappyEnd” by Neo Sora.

Film Analysis: HappyEnd (2024) by Neo Sora Interview With Neo Sora: The Casting Process Was Classical and Quite Abnormal for Japan Film Review: Viet and Nam (2024) by Minh Quy Truong Netpac Award

Netpac Award aims to read the diverse Asian perspectives from the first or second work of directors who hold the future of Asian cinema.

Arian Darmawan, Intan Paramaditha and Latika Padgaonkar gave the Netpac Award to “Ma – Cry of Silence” by The Maw Naing

Film Review: Ma- Cry of Silence...

Last Updated on December 9, 2024

John Waters’ annual top 10 movies list is always an eclectic one, filled with movies on the fringe that we may have never even heard of, ever a champion for the maligned. But the most interesting addition this year is one that got a lot of attention this year – just for all the wrong reasons.

Taking the #6 spot on his list of the top 10 movies of 2024 for Vulture, John Waters picked Todd Phillips’ much-derided Joker: Folie à Deux, which had all of the hype possible behind it but flopped with critics and audiences. In his write-up, Waters told us just what worked for him: “Finally, a love story I can relate to. So insane, so well thought out, so well directed, so much smoking! It’s Jailhouse Rock meets Busby Berkeley with a 9/11 That’s Entertainment! ending that will make you shake your head in cinematic astonishment.

Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux will be available to stream on Max from December 13 before hitting HBO linear on December 14 at 8 p.m. Et, and the downbeat musical sequel's final worldwide box office totals are in.

The film grossed just $206 million at the global box office (including $58 million in North America), and is expected to lose at least $150 million to $200 million for the studio.

This is a far cry from the first Joker movie, which took in over $1 billion worldwide and was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time before Deadpool and Wolverine surpassed it earlier this year.

Some notable names have come out in defence of Joker: Folie à Deux, and we can now add legendary director John Waters to the list.

"Finally, a love story I can relate to," Waters said of the film after sharing his top 10 of 2024 list. "So insane, so well thought out,...

John Waters is wading into the “Joker: Folie à Deux” critical controversy — and is already making a splash.

Waters released his annual list of the best films of the year, as published by Vulture, and bestowed the number six slot to Todd Phillips’ polarizing sequel.

“Finally, a love story I can relate to,” Waters wrote. “So insane, so well thought out, so well-directed, so much smoking! It’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ meets Busby Berkeley with a 9/11 ‘That’s Entertainment!’ ending that will make you shake your head in cinematic astonishment.”

Waters added, “Stupid critics. Gaga so good. Joker so right. Die, dumbbells, die!”

“Joker: Folie à Deux” received quite the support from subversive auteurs like Quentin Tarantino, who said that director Phillips harnessed the Joker mentality while helming the feature.

“He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood.

One of our favorite traditions in best-of-the-year festivities is a lineup that tends to find a more interesting path than any guilds or critics groups. The wonderfully eccentric John Waters, whose tastes always includes a mix of the unexpected and underseen, hasn’t let us down with his top 10 films of 2024.

Published at Vulture, where one should click over to read thoughts on each, his top 10 is led by Rose Glass’ neo-noir Love Lies Bleeding. Other selections include Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Joker: Folie à Deux (“a love story I can relate to”), and Trương Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam, which will arrive next year. Waters also notes the latest from Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, and Guy Maddin nearly made the cut.

Check out the list below, along with our reviews where available. Waters has also released a pair...

Cannes Critics’ Week has picked the projects that will be part of the 11th edition of Next Step, a programme aimed at helping filmmakers whose short films played at Critics’ Week develop their feature debut.

Since its creation 11 years ago, Next Step has accompanied the development of 96 feature projects, with 39 already completed. Recent Next Step alumni that stood out in the festival circuit include Molly Manning Walker with “How to Have Sex;” Chilean director Felipe Gálvez with “The Settlers;” Valentina Maurel with Locarno winner “I Have Electric Dreams;” as well as Matthew Rankin with Universal Language” which won Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award and represents Canada in the Oscar race.

In 2025, seven new features developed at Next Step are expected to roll out at major festivals, notably Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore” which won Venice’s industry prize, Final Cut, for a film in post production. Next...

Gold Coast, Australia: The Asia Pacific Screen Academy in strategic partnership with Aw Jewel welcomes its International Jury members, nominees and guests from across the globe to the Gold Coast for the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The prestigious international film event honours the cinematic excellence of 78 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific and films that best reflect their cultural origins and the diversity of the vast region.

Film industry guests from Australia, Cambodia, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Thailand, Türkiye, and the USA are confirmed to participate in the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Forum, to be held from 27 to 30 November.

Australian actress, writer and comedian Nina Oyama (Deadloch, Utopia) is set to host the Gala Awards Ceremony, on the evening of Saturday 30 November in the elegant Diamond Ballroom of The Langham, Gold Coast, on the traditional...

‘Harbin’ To Be Present At Christmas

Poised to be one of the biggest blockbusters of an uneven year for Korean cinema, “Harbin” is finally confirmed to release on Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The movie had its premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival but its distributor and financier Cj Enm chose to hold back the commercial release in its native Korea until the busy end-of-year season.

The period action film follows Korean independence activists who launch a daring attack against the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria (modern-day China).

It is directed by Woo Min-ho and stars Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing on You”), Park Jeong-min (“Decision to Leave”) and Jeon Yeo-been (“Cobweb”), who were all in action at a press launch event Monday in Seoul.

Apple Cider

Netflix has unveiled a trailer for Australian-produced “Apple Cider Vinegar,” a limited series which it will upload in 2025. The six-part drama chronicles the...

QCinema Project Market (Qpm) wrapped this weekend with an awards ceremony in which cash prizes and in-kind services worth $442,000 were handed out to projects from the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.

The event is part of an expanding roster of industry programs at QCinema International Film Festival (November 8-17), one of the Philippines’ major film gatherings, hosted by Quezon City, which is the largest city within the vast metropolitan area of Metro Manila.

While the festival has been running for 12 years, Qpm (November 14-16) was holding its second edition this year, and was joined by the launch of Asian Next Wave Film Forum, a series of panel discussions, masterclasses and case studies of regional co-productions.

Qpm selected 20 projects, including 13 from the Philippines and seven from the rest of Southeast Asia. Winning projects included Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon and upcoming works from Filipino filmmakers Martika Ramirez Escobar,...

The Philippines’ QCinema Project Market (Qpm) handed out $442,000 (PHP26M) in grants and co-production support at its closing ceremony on November 16.

Three projects from the Philippines received the QCinema Project Market Philippine Co-Production Grant, each valued at $ 34,000 (PHP2M) – Daughters Of The Sea, from Martika Ramirez Escobar; Heaven Help Us, directed by Eve Baswel, and Sonny Calvento’s Mother Maybe.

The QCinema Project Market – Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant, worth $17,000 (PHP1M) was awarded to Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon, directed by Sein Lyan Tun. In addition, co-production grants of $12,000 each were presented to Other People’s Dreams, directed by Singapore’s Daniel Hui, and The Passport, from Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam.

Qpm’s industry partners also handed out several awards including Nathan Studios’ development grant of PHP250,000, which went to Secret Cries, while the Taiwan Creative Content Agency presented the $5,000 Taicca Award to Ewa, the sole animation...

Vietnam talent showed strong presence at the 12th QCinema International Film Festival in Quezon City, Philippines, as Trương Minh Quý’s “Viet and Nam” claimed the top prize, while compatriot Dương Diệu Linh’s “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” secured the Grand Jury Prize.

“Viet and Nam,” which made its debut in Cannes Un Certain Regard, emerged victorious in the Asian Next Wave competition. The jury, comprising Babyruth Villarama, Gabor Greiner, Ming-Jung Kuo and Nguyen Le, praised the film for “conjuring the haunting presence of trauma and memories that are embedded within the landscape, and tenderly following a romance that unfolds deep within the coal mines.”

“Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” Dương’s debut feature, follows a middle-aged wife who, upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, embarks on a mystical journey in search of a better life. The film previously won three prizes at Venice.

Elizabeth Lo took home the Best Director award for “Mistress Dispeller,...

Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) has unveiled the full programme for its 35th edition, which includes honorary awards for Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-sheng and Yang Kuei-mei, and the launch of a Sgiff Industry Days conference.

Set to run from November 28 - December 8, the festival will continue to champion local and regional voices, with Asian cinema representing 80% of the line-up. The full selection comprises 105 films from 45 countries and features recurring themes of migration and displacement as well as the influence of technology on the medium of film.

The Asian Feature Film Competition, the festival’s main competition section, showcases nine features by promising directors across Asia,...

On October 22, 2024, the QCinema International Film Festival announced its much-anticipated lineup for this year, with The Gaze as its central theme. With 76 titles—22 short films and 55 full-length features—spanning across 11 distinct sections, the festival invites audiences to explore diverse perspectives through film. The Gaze seeks to challenge and expand how we view the world, from traditional masculine and feminine perspectives to new and transformative ways of seeing.

Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Belmonte officially opened the occasion, emphasizing QCinema’s vital role in advancing the city government’s cultural policies. She highlighted the festival’s contribution to Quezon City’s vision for sustainability and environmental friendliness, underscoring the partnership between the city and the festival to fulfill these goals.

The 12th edition of QCinema will open with Directors’ Factory Philippines, an omnibus film project in collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The project features four films created by Filipino directors alongside filmmakers from neighboring countries.

The Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival has locked its 12th edition lineup, with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” — Japan’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards — set to close the November event. The festival opens with “Directors’ Factory Philippines,” an eight-filmmaker omnibus collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight that pairs Filipino directors with counterparts from across Asia.

The omnibus features four films: Eve Baswel and Malaysia’s Gogularaajan Rajendran direct “Walay Balay”; Maria Estela Paiso teams with India’s Ashok Vish for “Nightbirds”; Arvin Belarmino collaborates with Cambodia’s Lomorpich Rithy on “Silig”; and Don Eblahan partners with Singapore’s Tan Siyou for “Cold Cut.”

The Quezon City-based fest will unspool 77 titles, including 55 features and 22 shorts, across 11 sections under this year’s theme “The Gaze.”

In the main competition Asian Next Wave, eight features compete: Duong Dieu Linh’s Venice Critics’ Week grand prize winner “Don’t Cry Butterfly”; Nelicia Low’s “Pierce...

Drama Deal

Fremantle has closed a package deal with Spanish streamer Filmin for a slate of premium drama titles, including Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of Ingmar Berman’s “Faithless” and BAFTA-winning actress Rebecca Hall’s thriller “The Listeners,” both of which recently screened in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Also included in the deal are Victor Levin’s Golden Globe-nominated “Alice & Jack,” starring Domhnall Gleeson and Adrea Riseborough; Series Mania best script winner “Herrhausen – The Banker and the Bomb”; and Series Mania audience award winner “Little Bird.”

“We’re deeply honored to add such high-quality titles to our eclectic catalog, which blends A-list actors and directors with independent productions of great merit,” said Filmin Head of Content and Editorial Director Jaume Ripoll. “Spanish audiences will be captivated by what’s coming next; these are all destined for success.”

Berlin Bonanza

The Berlinale‘s World Cinema Fund...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April head the nominations for the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), each securing nods in five categories.

Both will compete for best film, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography and best performance at the awards, which will be presented on November 30 at a ceremony on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

All We Imagine As Light, billed as an ode to nocturnal Mumbai, premiered in Competition at Cannes, where it won the festival’s grand prix. April, the story of a Georgian ob-gyn who faces accusations,...

Mumbai Film Festival has announced the 11 titles selected for its South Asia competition, the main competitive section of the festival, which includes the UK’s Oscars submission, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, making its South Asian premiere.

The line-up also includes Nepal’s Oscars submission, Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, along with one other Nepali title – Deepak Rauniyar’s Pooja, Sir – and Bhutanese title Agent Of Happiness, directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbo.

Indian titles in the competition include Rima Das’ Village Rockstars 2, which recently won a Jiseok award at Busan International Film Festival; multiple award-winner Girls Will Be Girls, by Shuchi Talati; Raam Reddy’s The Fable and Midhun Murali’s Kiss Wagon (see full line-up below).

The non competitive Focus South Asia section is screening ten features and 13 shorts, including a title from Afghanistan – Roya Sadat’s The Sharp Edge Of Peace – and a short film from Myanmar,...

Japan’s leading indie film festival, Tokyo Filmex (November 23-December 1) has unveiled the line-up for its competition, opening and closing films, and other sections.

The festival, which marks its 25th year in 2024, will open with Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, which played in competition at this year’s Cannes, and close with Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, for which actor Kim Min-hee won the Pardo for best performance at Locarno.

The 10 competition titles include the Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the special jury prize at Venice this year; Girls Will Be Girls, the...

by Cláudio Alves

In the darkness of the movie theater, filmmakers can conjure images the audience has never dreamed of. Sometimes, they reveal the impossible, dreams that only exist on the silver screen, that looking glass in endless molten metamorphosis. They can reflect the audience back to themselves and the world, too. Sometimes, they're the sweet secrets within your heart or fears you never even knew you had. The power of image-making cannot nor should it be underestimated. Watching Trương Minh Quý's Viêt and Nam, I felt such power, the wonder and awe.

And it all starts underground, at the bottom of a mine. It starts somewhere where death waits, yet freedom blossoms. It's a trip down to hell that leads to paradise, temporary as it may be…...

Two Vietnamese-flavored films in prominent festival slots this year have put the spotlight on the country’s emerging indie cinema scene.

A discussion in Busan on Saturday highlighted the sector’s behind-the-scenes struggles, which center on ever-changing financing options, limited distribution and censorship.

“Now is the best time to be a Southeast Asia filmmaker. We can now produce without Europe. That was not possible ten years ago,” said Bianca Balbuena, the Philippines-based lead producer on “Viet and Nam” the Truong Minh Quy-directed gay drama that debuted in Cannes this year.

“More people are getting opportunities to make films. Festivals are starting up in Vietnam too But still there is a discrepancy between festival aspirations and the reality for independent filmmakers,” said Truong in a video message. “Censorship is too heavy. Domestic [Vietnamese] support for independent film is none.”

“Viet and Nam” was 12 years in the making and was structured as a multinational co-production.

In the opening moments of Truong Minh Quy’s third feature Viet and Nam, a svelte figure emerges from one corner of the frame and glides to another. He seems like an apparition, an unreal entity wading through an enveloping blackness. White flakes float around him, dotting the dark expanse like stars against a night sky. When the shrill whine of a bell interrupts the constructed reverie, a more realistic scene comes into focus: Two men rush to button up their shirts and resume their work.

Viet and Nam, which premiered at Cannes in May in the Un Certain Regard sidebar before bowing this week at New York Film Festival, is a dreamy observation of romantic devotion and haunted histories. Its protagonists — Viet, played by Dao Duy Bao Dinh, and Nam, played by Pham Thanh Hai — are lovers whose relationship blooms in the underground corridors of a mine in northern Vietnam.

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.A camel, it has been said, is a horse designed by committee. This seems wrong, though, since it assumes that a horse was the initial objective, and that the camel resulted from too many incompatible interests and desires. In fact, the camel is perfectly equipped for what it needs to do, and if that camel finds itself having to step into a horse’s position, that speaks more to poor planning and shortsighted decision-making than to the nature of the camel itself. Nevertheless, the point of this aphorism is to suggest that you get something weird and nonfunctional when you allow too many people to have their say. But are these outcomes really that strange? What you get is more likely to be the sort of compromise that pleases no one. The Affordable Care Act is national health care by committee. Oprah’s Book Club is literature by committee.

The 68th BFI London Film Festival has just announced the line-up and – as always – a wide variety of Asian films is included in the vast Programme. Over 12 days, the Lff will showcase 255 works from 80 countries, featuring 64 languages and including 112 projects made by female and non-binary filmmakers.

The London Film Festival, officially called the BFI London Film Festival is organised annually by the British Film Institute (BFI) since 1953. It is the UK’s largest public Festival of its kind and is visited by thousands of film enthusiasts who have the the ability to see films, documentaries and shorts from all over the world. The festival will take place at London’s BFI Southbank and The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, as well as cinemas and venues across central London, and will run from 9 to 20 October 2024.

All the info about tickets and booking are Here.

And now, let’s browse the...

That Truong Minh Quy’s new queer romance-cum-sociohistorical lament Viet and Nam was banned by the country whose name forms its title will probably surprise few Western audience members. And yet, it reportedly wasn’t the central relationship between two young men that was the sticking point for Vietnamese censors but, rather, the film’s “gloomy, deadlocked and negative view” of the country and its denizens. Which probably says as much for the increased stature of LGBTQ+ visibility on the global stage as it does about the troublesome uptick in reactionary nationalism as the world’s collective migrant crisis continues to widen in scope, which very well could threaten to diminish the progress made on the former.

As the film opens, Viet and Nam are shown working alongside each other in the dark yet twinkling depths of a mine, caked in soot and blithely musing about just how much coal dust their lungs can hold.

Throughout the years, and at least to the people who do not deal extensively with Vietnamese cinema, the local movie industry was almost exclusively represented by Tran Anh Hung, whose films like “Cyclo”, “The Scent of Green Papaya” and “Vertical Ray of the Sun” are the first that come to the mind of any cinephile. However, the Camera D’or for best first feature film Pham Tien An won at the 76th Cannes Film Festival for “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” showed that there might be more to local cinema than the aforementioned director, who did won Best Director for “The Taste of Things”, in a production though, that is exclusively French.

Furthermore as Le Chou wrote in an article published last year in Asian Movie Pulse, “For the first time in modern Vietnam cinema since the establishment of its box office tracking, six local films topped the Vietnam box...

Arthouse distributor Strand Releasing has taken North American rights for Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Love,” which makes its world premiere on Sept. 6 in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival. M-Appeal is handling world sales for the film.

“Love” is the latest entry in Haugerud’s “Sex,” “Love” and “Dreams” trilogy, which delves into modern relationships and intimacy. “Sex,” the first instalment, premiered at the Berlinale.

Strand, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, previously acquired “Sex,” and will release both films theatrically in spring 2025.

Jon Gerrans, co-president of Strand, said: “Haugerud has crafted a wonderfully intelligent, provocative and unique approach to personal, adult relationships, with a sly wink toward our own attitudes toward sex, love and desire.”

“Love” tells the story of Marianne, a pragmatic doctor, and Tor, a compassionate nurse, who both avoid conventional relationships. One evening, after a blind date, Marianne encounters Tor on the ferry.

Vietnamese cinema’s profile has been on the rise at major international film festivals of late. Debut director Phạm Thiên Ân won Cannes’ Caméra d’Or prize in 2023 with his meditative drama Inside the Yellow Cacoon Shell, and Trương Minh Quý brought the country back to the French festival this year with the well-received romantic drama Viet and Nam. Next up, the 81st Venice Film Festival, opening Aug. 28, will add a strong female voice to this budding Vietnamese new wave with the premiere of Don’t Cry, Butterfly, directed by another first-timer, Dương Diệu Linh.

A metaphysical drama (see its first trailer, below), the new film follows Tam (Lê Tú Oanh), a diligent middle-aged wedding venue worker who learns that her husband has been cheating on her when a live TV broadcast of a soccer match catches him on camera in the stands with his mistress. Determined to win back her...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSBlazing Saddles.With on-location filming in Los Angeles on the steep decline, Mayor Karen Bass has launched the Entertainment Industry Council, which plans to lobby the state to subsidize productions in the city.FESTIVALSViet and Nam.The Toronto International Film Festival (September 5–15) has added a number of titles to its lineup, including Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, bringing the total to 276. The Wavelengths slate will feature Truong Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, and Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’s Pepe, among others. Festival attendees are encouraged to use this nifty tool, lest they be lost forever in the scheduling labyrinth.

Sunshine, written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone, is set to have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, under the Centrepiece Programme.

Sunshine tells the story of a young gymnast who finds out she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs, she meets a mysterious girl who eerily talks like her.

When her self-induced abortion fails, she comes face to face with the harsh reality of how pregnant women of all ages and backgrounds in the Philippines are violently robbed of the chance to choose for themselves and their bodies.

Jadaone aims to bring to the forefront not-often talked about issues affecting Filipina women daily.

In the Philippines, roughly 1,000 women die yearly because of lack of access to safe abortions, with others going to jail. On the taboo topic of the film, she...

International auteurs Miguel Gomes, Wang Bing and Roberto Minervini will be part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths program, TIFF organizers announced on Thursday.

The festival will present the North American premieres of “Grand Tour,” a period piece for which Gomes won the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Minervini’s “The Damned,” a Civil War-era drama that screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section; and two films by Chinese documentarian Wang Bing, “Youth (Hard Times)” and “Youth (Homecoming).”

The Wavelengths section, which is devoted to daring cinema and contemporary art, will also include “exergue – on documenta 14,” a 14-hour documentary by Greek director Dimitris Athiridis that will be presented over three separate screenings.

Wavelengths is divided into different sections – one consisting of 11 feature films, another with a special presentation of Egyptian director Wael Shawky’s “Drama 1882” and another showcasing 13 different short and medium-length films grouped into thematic programs.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced its Wavelengths programme highlighting visionary work including Dimitris Athiridis’s 14-hour documentary exergue - on documenta 14, and a Classics line-up featuring work from Atom Egoyan and Frederick Wiseman.

The Wavelengths programme comprises 11 features, three shorts programmes, and an in-cinema looped presentation of Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882.

The features selections includes Cannes entries Viêt And Nam by Trương Minh Quý, Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes and The Damned by Roberto Minervini, and Berlin selection Pepe by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias.

exergue - on documenta 14 receives its North American premiere after...

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its Wavelengths program for artist-driven experimental work that includes films by avant garde directors Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini and Miguel Gomes.

With 11 features on offer, the Wavelengths section includes a 14-hour documentary, exergue – on documenta 14, from director Dimitris Athiridi set to be presented over three screenings.

The section will also feature North American premieres for the remaining chapters of Wang Bing’s Youth trilogy: Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming); Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour, which won best director at Cannes; The Damned by Roberto Minervini, an American Civil War drama that won best director in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes; and Pepe, by director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, about the life and death reflections of a hippo with connections to Pablo Escobar.

Wavelengths last year in Toronto screened Wang’s Youth (Spring), the Cannes competition title about Chinese garment workers.

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival continues to update its robust programming lineup. This year’s Wavelengths and Classics programs boast various hits, now including the North-American premiere of buzzy Cannes title “Viêt and Nam,” directed by Trương Minh Quý.

The Wavelengths lineup tallies 11 features, three shorts programs, and a special in-cinema looped presentation. Wavelengths alums Miguel Gomes (“Grand Tour”), Roberto Minervini (“The Damned”), and Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias (“Pepe”) return with their respective North-American premieres. Jessica Sarah Rinland is also back to the program with “Collective Monologue.”

There is also the 14-hour documentary “exergue – on documenta 14” from Greek filmmaker Dimitris Athiridi, which will be presented over the course of three screenings.

The program is curated by Senior Curator Andréa Picard and Associate Curator Jesse Cumming, with contributions by Giovanna Fulvi, Nataleah Hunter-Young, and June Kim.

For the shorts selections, the late auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s final film “Scénarios...

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to “Viet and Nam” which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.

Directed by Truong Minh Quý, the film tells the passionate love story of two young coal miners who face separation and ultimately make sacrifices to stay together. Represented in international markets by Pyramide International, “Viet and Nam” stars Pham Thanh Hai and Dao Duy Bao Dinh.

“’Viet and Nam’ was one of the most mesmerizing films I’ve seen in awhile, romantic, tragic and tender directed with a unique style that embodies the auteurs we cultivate,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.

“We are very happy that after its wonderful journey at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, Viet And Nam can now meet the American audience. We are also delighted to collaborate once again with Strand, one of our long-standing partners. We are confident that they...

Vietnam’s Beta Media and Japan’s Aeon Entertainment have forged a joint venture that will plough $200m (VND5tn) into 50 premium cinema complexes in Vietnam and see the duo enter film production and distribution, opening up new horizons for the local film industry.

The first cinema complex under the Aeon Beta Cinema brand is expected to open its doors in 2025, with all 50 complexes to be built in provinces across Vietnam in the same year.

This strategic partnership leverages on the expertise of both parties. Aeon Entertainment is Japan’s largest cinema chain in terms of the number of theatres and screens,...

Japanese exhibitor Aeon Entertainment and Vietnam’s Beta Media have inked a deal to form a joint venture, aiming to build and operate a premium cinema chain across Vietnam.

The partnership also encompasses plans for film production and distribution in the country.

The venture, operating under the Aeon Beta Cinema brand, targets opening more than 50 premium multiplexes by 2035. The first location is slated to debut in 2025. While specific financial details weren’t disclosed, the total investment is estimated to reach around VND5 trillion ($198.2 million).

Aeon Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japan’s Aeon Group and the largest cinema operator in its home market with 96 locations, sees Vietnam as a key growth market. Nobuyuki Fujiwara, chair of Aeon Entertainment, cited Beta Media’s local market knowledge and network as crucial factors in the partnership.

For Beta Media, part of Vietnam’s Beta Group, the joint venture complements its existing Beta Cinemas brand,...

Singapore-based production company Akanga Film Asia has been set as the newly-launched Spanish Audiovisual Hub in Asia. It will seek to expand connections between the film, TV, animation and games industries of Spain and those in Asia.

Akanga is headed by Fran Borgia, a Spanish producer who has Asian film production credits including Boo Junfeng’s “Apprentice,” Yeo Siew Hua’s Locarno-winning “A Land Imagined,” Kamila Andini’s “Yuni” and Amanda Nell Eu’s “Tiger Stripes.”

The company was selected after a tender process initiated by the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain in Singapore, representing Icex Spain Export and Investment. Borgia is appointed as the “Consultant for the Audiovisual Sector of Spain in Asia” and will work closely with veteran producer and festival consultant Lorna Tee.

“The project aims to enhance Spain’s positioning as a production country and as a destination for filming, post-production of live-action and digital images,...

TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has selected Awaiting Birds and Past Future Continuous to receive €50,000 production grants each through the 2024 edition of its Tfl Co-Production Fund.

Awaiting Birds is the second feature from Argentine-Costa Rican filmmaker Sofia Quiros Ubeda. It follows a seven-year-old boy whose mother’s health deteriorates quickly, leading him to project the fantasy of a new mother onto his aunt.

Costa Rica’s Sputnuk Films leads production, in co-production with Argentina’s Murillo Cine, Brazil’s Vulcana Films, Spain’s El Viaje Films, France’s Promenades Films and Norway’s Staer – the last of which is the beneficiary of the Tfl fund.

Thai sales company Diversion has acquired worldwide rights to Sivaroj Kongsakul’s Regretfully At Dawn, which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition of the upcoming San Sebastian Film Festival.

It marks the second feature of Thai filmmaker Sivaroj, whose 2010 debut Eternity won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam as well as top prizes at Hong Kong International Film Festival and Deauville Asian Film Festival.

Regretfully At Dawn follows a war veteran nearing the end of his life and his bright young niece who has a promising future ahead of her. They live quietly in a small province outside...

Molder from Filipino director Kenneth Dagatan has scooped the top Bucheon Award at the 17th Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) project market, which runs alongside South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan).

As well as a cash prize of KRW15m, the upcoming horror thriller also won the Blood Window Award, which includes an expenses-paid invitation to the Blood Window project market at Ventana Sur in Argentina.

Scroll down for full list of winners

It marks the next feature from Dagatan, whose fantasy horror In My Mother’s Skin was the first ever Midnight section selection from Asia...

Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, Gábor Reisz’s Explanation for Everything, Federico Luis’ Simon Of The Mountain and Minh Quý Trương’s Viet And Nam, were the winners of the four main competitive strands of this year’s Munich International Film Festival (Miff) which closed on Saturday July 6.

The festival’s biggest award, the €100,000 CineCoPro award, provided by Fff Bayern to be invested in a future co-production, was presented to François Morisset’s company Salaud Morisset, the German co-producer of To A Land Unknown.

The first narrative feature by Palestinian filmmaker Fleifel is a refugee drama about two Palestinians stranded in Athens.

Cannes Do Spirit

Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starring feminist body horror film “The Substance” has been set as the closing night title for the New Zealand International Film Festival. The picture is one of 16 which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month selected for the Nziff which is now under the artistic leadership of Paolo Bertolin.

The Nziff’s Fresh” strand features: “Good One,” by India Donaldson (daughter of New Zealand cinema legend Roger Donaldson); “To A Land Unknown,” by Mahdi Fleifel; Truong Minh Quý’s “Viet and Nam” a journey of young miners in Vietnam; Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise”; and Agathe Riedinger’s “Wild Diamond.”

The “Widescreen” strand showcases films including: Chinese director Guan Hu’s Un Certain Regard-winning “Black Dog”; Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home Cannes’ Special Jury Prize; Boris Lojkine’s “The Story of Souleymane...

The Mediterrane Film Festival announced its complete program ahead of its second edition, taking place in Malta’s capital of Valetta from June 22-30. New titles selected include recent Cannes highlights in Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-led body horror “The Substance” and Roberto Minvervini’s “The Damned,” which join previously announced films like Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Kinds of Kindness” and Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw The TV Glow.”

Further program additions include Mahdi Fleifel’s Directors’ Fortnight standout “To a Land Unknown,” which Variety labeled “a confident, angry, fully-realized drama,” and Truong Minh Quy’s Un Certain Regard breakout “Viet and Nam.” An extended version of the Malta-shot “Jurassic World: Dominion” will play as part of the Malta Expanded strand, while on the retrospective end of the program, the festival will honor David Bowie with screenings of Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and Lisa Azuelos’s “My Way,...

The Mediterrane Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its second edition (June 22-30), with Cannes premiere The Count Of Monte Cristo set to open the event.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the film is among seven titles in the out of competition strand, which also includes Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance title I Saw The TV Glow and Tarsem Singh’s Dear Jassi.

The 15-strong competition section features Cannes competition titles Kinds Of Kindness and The Substance, and Berlin premiere The Strangers case starring Omar Sy,

Seven films compete in the environment-themed Mare Nostrum section,...

Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival has set the full competition and industry lineup for its second edition, which runs June 22 to 30 in the country’s capital, Valletta.

The programme includes 15 films in competition, seven out-of-competition, and seven films competing in the environment-themed Mare Nostrum section, topped up by 14 immersive projects.

Select competition titles include Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest Kinds of Kindness, Coralie Fargeat’s body horror The Substance, and The Damned by Italian filmmaker Roberto Minvervini. All three films debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Scroll down to see the full lineup. Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller will serve on the competition jury.

The festival has also set its industry lineup, featuring a series of masterclass sessions. Speakers include editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, production designer Nathan Crowley, casting director Margery Simkin, and composer Simon Franglen...

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) has unveiled the full line-up for its 28th edition, which is set to open with Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding and close with Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.

The festival, running July 4 to 14, will screen 225 films from 49 countries, including 67 world premieres. Titles will also receive online screenings through local Ott platform wavve.

Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart and marks the second feature of UK filmmaker Glass, whose Saint Maud won the Best Director Choice Feature award at Bifan in 2020. The film premiered at Sundance before playing Berlin earlier this year.

Upcoming projects from award-winning filmmakers Nelson Yeo, Patiparn Boontarig, Kenneth Dagatan and producers of Cannes drama Viet And Nam are among the selection for this year’s Network of Asian Fantastic Films (Naff) market.

Held during South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan), some 37 titles from 22 countries have been selected for the project market, which runs July 6-9 alongside Asia’s largest genre festival. One-to-one meetings will take place with producers, investors, and distributors.

Titles in the It Project selection include Vietnamese horror The Heirloom, set to be the feature directorial debut of Le Hoang from the producers of Viet And Nam,...